BY UNNAVA VENKATA RAMANA NITIN
“Yarr, me hearties! Set sail for adventure!!!” The scholars arrived early on the morning of 14th October 2017 for an exciting day of fun activities that had been planned out by the Special Projects Portfolio.
The majority of the event was a pirate themed scavenger hunt in which the scholars went to four different locations (South Spine, Hive, Innovation Center and Yunnan Gardens) to find puzzle pieces through which they could earn points. There were four teams with the most creative (sarcasm overload!) team names ever – Red Boat, Yellow Gun, Blue Shell and Green Parrot. The teams were all given cute origami figures that corresponded to their teams.
Each location had three puzzle pieces per team and the four teams racked their brains and searched far and wide for their pieces. Especially gruelling was the Yunnan Gardens location where the wide area to search pushed most of the scholars into insanity babbling on about how bushes were an absolutely devious hiding place for the green colored puzzle pieces!
Alongside this scavenger hunt, teams could also visit stations to earn extra points. There were four station games in total that were played in rotation. Firstly, there was a modified version of hangman where the team loses if they don’t guess their words before their team member has finished ‘walking the plank’. Second, there was the Pirate rush hour game, where teams had to manoeuvre their ‘ships’ to see if they could get them out of a traffic jam ala the popular board game Rush Hour. Third, there was a hilarious segment where scholars were given pictures of bootlegged or ripped off movie posters and they had to guess which movie they came from. Finally, there was ‘Arr you a pirate’, a trivia game where the scholars were asked pirate themed questions that were either serious or extremely lame puns (“How much did the pirate charge for earrings? A Buck-an-ear!” Oh God why?).
After a hearty meal, the scholars were extremely excited for the finale that they had been waiting for since the morning. IT WAS NERF WAR TIME! They assembled at the field outside SPMS to be greeted by some obstacles on the field, 36 guns lying on the floor and 900 bullets. Quickly, the scholars ran down to test out all the different types of guns (on their unwitting peers of course!). After a quick safety briefing, the scholars were split back into their teams where they played against the other team in a dodgeball-esque showdown where extra points could be scored for knocking down the opponents’ flag. After playing each other, the final segment of Nerf war was at hand – THE FREE FOR ALL SHOOTOUT! For ten minutes, the scholars went berserk, friends turned to enemies, bullets rained down on everyone. In the last ten seconds, they decided to all point their guns towards me (for which I have to thank my lovely juniors sigh) and let loose. I’d like to say I was brave like Al Pacino in Scarface but my loud high-pitched squeal begged to differ.
After, the bullets were collected and returned, the scholars went back to the LT where the prize presentation ceremony took place. The teams were given wonderful bags filled with treats and the winning team was given a beautiful hand-made treasure chest filled with their share of the booty. The winning two teams also won pirate hats for each of their members who could not look more delighted. The Special Projects Portfolio would like to sincerely thank all of you for your enthusiastic participation!